Monthly Archives: January 2015

From the Green Island comes Raum Kingdom. They make bleak blackened doom that has little to do with any of the further stereo types that might pop up when you hear Ireland. The band released a refreshing album of material, that feels like a new wind breathing through what we know in this style. Inspired by the likes of Amenra and Neurosis, the band promises to be an interesting new act on the horizon. Time to check in with the guys from Dublin. Guitar player Andrew Colohan is keen to tell us more about Raum Kingdom.

Hello, yes we are all in good spirits, form and health and delighted to be doing this for the Sleeping Shaman.

Who are in the band and how did you get together, did you guys play in other bands before?

There are four of us in the band, Me (Andrew) -Demons Bow, Dave – Chant, Mark – Rattle and Ronan – Devils Bow. We have been close friends for a long time and big lovers of music and over the years have been in different projects with each other. The time came when we could eventually play together and this happened. We hope that real life can be kept at bay so we can continue with this for as long as we can.

As far as I can gather your bandname might be derived from the petty kingdoms of Norway, of which one was called Raumerike. Is that correct?

We have never heard of that place before, So sorry to say, but no. Sounds nice tho. Norway seems like a nice place. We were settled on just Raum but the name was taken so we added kingdom. It doesn’t really come from anywhere as such it was just trial and error.

What inspired you to that name?

We had ideas and a concept from the get go and even as we where progressing through creating the songs we didnt have a name. But the more we tried to find something the more it eluded us. The name eventually was found through trial and error and as everything else was taken. Raum Kingdom is supposed to stimulate the imagination of a place or earth with different values , principles and laws.

Source: Facebook Raum Kingdom

What can you tell us about your record, how did the recording and writing process go?

We had a blast writing this music and still are enjoying writing. The process is we basically say ” That’s to many notes.” Strip what we can back to the core, do a little shuffling and testers. When it fits the theme of what we want and are about, we take it from there. Recording is when we polish off everything, as we don’t know what it will truly sound like until then.

What is the general theme of the record?

We didn’t intentionality set out to have a theme for the EP but if we had to say there was one it would be Pain with a pinch of hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EbGOGTAzbc

When I listen to it and also follow the lyrics, it feels like a story or like a stream of consciousnous from one person. Do you feel that would be in there?

Yeah for sure each song has it’s own story to tell.

What is in your opinion the best song on the record and why?

We all have different opinions about that and it changes with each of us as time passes. But it might be good to say that ” This Sullen Hope ” Could be generally considered one that we all go Yea thats what we want and are about as it has everyting in it.

The record seems to be generally well received, what makes Raum Kingdom stand out in your opinion?

We’re still a bit blown away at how good the response has been none of us really expected it. I don’t think there’s a lot of bands out there trying to do what we are doing.

What is the sludge/doom scene in Ireland like? What hidden gems does Ireland have to offer?

Being such a small nation and an Island. The scene is rather small, That’s not too say the ideals are small. It can get reptitive very quickly here. There are few gems we know of. Fuckhammer, Okus and Weedpriest. Just to name three. Some vile stuff happening there.

Are you going to tour for this release?

We would love too gig and tour and we will as much as humanly possible with the hopes that the numbers and tempo will increase in time. We are having our EP launch on the 05th Sep 14, Fibber McGee’s in Dublin Ireland, With a few other shows and surprises happening.

What future plans do you guys have?

As a unit we have many hopes and aspirations. But we gotta keep all that in check and be real. We are loving what we have at the moment and we are enjoying every moment of it. We are currently writing, gigging and hopefully playing in other countries soon. But we just gotta wait and see. There’ll be an album within a year called Raum Kingdom II.

Anything you would like to share?

In the absence of will power the most complete collection of virtues and talents is wholly worthless.

Raum Kingdom’s self titled debut is available through their Bandcamp profile http://raumkingdom.bandcamp.com/releases

Another edition of books that I read, with Plutarch, Vargas Llosa, Murakami and Kahneman. Keep on reading!

Plutarch – On Sparta

Source: Goodreads.com

This edition of Plutarch’s writings on Sparta combines the lives of famous Spartans with an abundance of further notes and information. It’s a rather complete work for those interested in the legendary city state, that most will know from the film 300. The work of Plutarch has suffered many revisions by editors, trying to figure out a cool way to present it to the audience. Earlier I read a book by Penguing on The Age Of Alexander, where they cut descriptions of lives in half, splitting them in timeframes, since Plutarch loved to compare Greeks and Romans (preferably finding fitting couples). Thist time Penguin has decided to go for thinner books on a theme.

To compensate for the relative little amount of work, some extra resources have been added, which make this book to a rich source of information brought together under one cover. There is little commentary, but some critical notes that help the reader to relate to Plutarch and take his work with a grain of salt here and there. Truly, parts are very entertaining and others seem to be uncritical glorification. That seems to be a fatal flaw of historic works in general though.

Daniel Kahneman – Thinking Fast And Slow

Source: Goodreads.com

I’ve always had a dislike to psychology, I cannot help it. This book was also kind of selected by mistake, because it was categorized as a philosophy book. Well, what can you do? I listened to this on my iPod and was very much captivated by it. Not only does Kahneman have the unique ability to make things relatable and come up with proper examples, his whole explanation seems to be aimed at generating understanding. Not trying to be pretentious (which most psychology is) and actually explaining how difficult certain lessons and insights were to gather.

Kahneman explains that we have two systems of cognition, an instantanious top-of-mind one and a secondary, analytical and calculating one. This explains a lot about the way we act and react to what happens around us. Learning to understand this system may be vital to understand why you feel and think certain things. I would call that a great insight and well worth the read/listening.

Mario Vargas Llosa – Dream Of The Celt

Source: Goodreads.com

I’ve read this book on my e-reader, which is a new toy I have, which was captivating to the end. I spoiled this book a bit for myself by reading up on who Roger Casement, the protagonist of the book, actually is. Vargas Llosa dusted of this hero of the Irish struggle for freedom and tried to write his story, without making it all glorious and epic. It’s the story of a man with pain, haemeroids, represessed sexual feelings but a moral backbone and humanitarian ideals. It’s told as a a story that might be true and shows that people are more than who they sleep with.

Roger Casement was knighted for his daring reports on cruelties in Congo and Peru during the early 20th century. He visited these places and saw the greed and inhumanity of the Peruvian rubber company and Leopold II’s Congo. He also writes daring erotic stories in his diary of encounters with younger, vital men. Then he gets involved with the Irish struggle for independence, gets arested and eventually executed and slandered for his sexual preferences. Vargas Llosa succesfully shows the whole person in a wonderful book.

Haruki Murakami – 1Q84

Source: Goodreads.com

I’ve never really gotten into much un-Western literature, by which I mean literature with a setting away from the world I’m used to. In reading the three books that make up 1Q84, I’ve definitely had a good choice in experiencing some of that and the excellent writing of Murakami. The story is about two people who seem to traverse to a parallel world, where strange things occur. The two people have met as children and never truly forgotten eachother. Aomame is a fitness instructor, she lives alone and has a minimal life style. Her other activities include casual sex with balding men and murdering men that abuse their women for a rich lady with a grudge.

Tengo teaches math in a school and in his spare time, he is a writer. He likes to read, cook and on friday has sex with his older girlfriend. His friend, the editor Komatsu, approaches him with a manuscript, written by a 17-year old girl. He plans to let Tengo rewrite it for a contest. From here on, life becomes strange for both figures that get themselves mixed up in something bigger then them. A world where logic doesn’t count for what it does in the real world. They relive their pasts and in the end their quest will bring them together. The title refers to the name that Aomame comes up with, as an alternative for the year the story takes place in (1984). The book is brilliantly written, never rushing but also never letting you hang in there. It offers a continuous story with magical aspects, deep characters and well measured emotions.

This is the second sound of the Underground of 2015, with bands like Inquisitor, Odota, An Autumn For Crippled Children and Baptists. So much good stuff left over from last year.

Inquisitor – Clinamen | Episteme

Source: Inquisitor Bandcamp

The Lithuanian scene is a truly hidden gem and the band Inquisitor was recommended to me for listening. The band has been around for 12 years already and makes a dense combination of hard riffing and passionate melodies in what can be perceived as an organic whole. Funky, hectic grooves lace the song ‘Hearken, Memmius!’ that opens their new record. Soaring guitars. That playful weird sound is apparently their schtick, also the semi-clean vocals offer a new persective. ‘Hence The Mouthful of Time’ is full of progressive piano elements and peculiar elements.

Though progressive and embracing avant-garde, there is nothing tame about the groups sound. The album shows much variation, but also sheer brutality and grim atmospheres to the listener. The strenght however, is the detailed extremes the band seems to play with in their music, going from typical black metal to a form of jazz or funk and back again. The sound is always bleak and all you would expect from a band that labels as black metal. The intelligent sound of these guys is definitely worth the attention of the avid metal fan though and I cannot wait to hear more from them.

An Autumn For Crippled Children – try not to love everything you destroy EP

Source: Bandcam AAFCC

With probably the must fucked-up bandname in a long time of fucked-up bandnames, this group does make an extremely beautiful sort of post-black metal. Soaring film score elements accompany a layered, atmospheric barrage of guitar and sonic effects on the titletrack. There’s a warmth in the sound of this mysterious group from the Netherlands that has no equal. It’s the warmth of embracing a certain fatalism. Fun fact is the reference of the title to previous full lenght ‘Try Not to Destroy Everything You Love’.

The second song is ‘post war’, which has fierce guitar structures that even with their smooth effects sound like typical black metal riffing. The sound is rich and reminds the listener of obvious names like Deafheaven and Liturgy, but with a weird twist of their own. This is a band that has done amazing work this far and is worth recommending to anyone who is into this music, but also those outside of it.

Baptists – Bloodmines

Source: Baptists Bandcamp

Luckily, there are still good hardcore records coming out now and then and this new one by Vancouver residents Baptists is a true blistering masterpiece of what hardcore should be. A lot of squeeking guitar work and gritty rhythm combinations makes the sound of the Canadians agressive and controlled. Their aesthetic is something with man versus nature, which is displayed in the beautiful cover that expresses a dark perspective on this struggle. That darkness is taken into the sound of songs like ‘Vistas’ and ‘Harm Introduction’.

Grinding guitars and hectic breaks form the base of the raging songs the band keeps chugging out. The furious vocals are spat out at break-neck speed, furious at the world and followed by pounding drums. The sound is coherent and organic though, there is little artfical about this band and I guess that is one of their main charms. Hopefully they cross the ocean soon, so we can admire their live antics as well.

Odota – Fever Marshall

source: Odota bandcamp

Jarmo Nuutre is a peculiar dude, who does fantastic tattoo’s and used to make mammoth-stomping sludge with Talbot. This is his new project and it is filled with a lot of awesome. Slow creeping sound, filled with strange atmospheric effects accompany the searing guitarwork. Black metal inspired, industrial tinged noise on a slow, doomy pace is what best captures the sound on this first release. The heavy distorted vocals and rest of the sound offer a sound that envelopes the listener. Tracks like ‘Bad Medicine’ stand out due to their dark and frightening atmosphere.

Strangely, a song like ‘Half Eagle’ feels more like a video game soundtrack mixed with an evil EBM song that you have to dance to in the intro. The sound samples Nuutre choses, betray an eclectic sound and a creative mind that is free of boundaries. Closer ‘Rattlesnakes Unfold’ is a tidal wave that keeps pushing you under in a dense rattling, drumming sound, waves of distorted guitar wafting over you, while vocals seem to just scream at the sky. This debut of Odota is an unholy experience of awesome and for those who like a little bit of experiment and doom in their blackened noise metal. Did I capture it there?

Today I want to get serious with you about Leadership and Effectivenes. A tough topic, which has been elaborately described by many writers in amazing leadership books full of inspiration. I would like to touch upon a few of those to get to the core of what I want to say and then move on to something else that I think is the very simple core of the whole idea of personal leadership and in the end happy relations with all your surroundings, wether it’s work, family, social networks or just interpersonal relations.

7 Habits of a Better Leader, Better Life, but let’s start with why

I’ve picked three of my favorites for this post and mixed them up (see what I did there?). What they have in common is a set of tools to make your life better, by taking charge of your own life. Leadership is the core term that is used for most of these. The first in the title is the 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. There’s a whole series of adaptations to different situations, but this is the main book and thye work that made this good man millions.

Source: Daily motivation (dailymotivation.com)

It takes 7 habits as the tools to use, which are divided over 3 categories: Independence, Interdependence and continuous improvements. The idea is, this is probably a quote from the book, that you first have to be independent to become interdependent. To be independent, you have to focus on being proactive, having your end-goal in mind and putting first things first. This is a great way to go into any conversation and shape your own role in those. Interdependence has collaboration at the forefront: Think Win-Win, First understand and then be understoot and Synergize. It’s all aimed at getting chemistry going between participants in the interaction. Habit number 7 speaks for itself. There’s a lot of things connected to these values, but it all serves the goals of gaining control by starting with yourself and then moving on. That is also the good thing about Covey’s system: it allows you to take things in your own pace with your own steps.

Better Leader, Better Life is based on the book by Stew Friedman, who supposes various circles in which you are active and focusses a lot on experimenting with your life to find improvements. Friedman supposes a four step proces in which you involve all the domains of your life:

Reflect

Brainstorm possibilities

Choose experiments

Measure progress

I personally find this a very difficult way to take on life, since constant challenging is very hard to maintain and to keep working on all parts of life. Balance is impossible according to Friedman, but everything interacts. There’s definitely a lot of value to his work, but like that of Covey it is highly idealistic and very hard to follow. Failure is not a problem per se, but does get hard to deal with at some point.

Why Wheaton’s Law?

At the core of all ideas there’s values as ‘thinking win-win’, ‘being proactive’ or other good behaviour that will eventually lead to an effective and problem solving attitude. We are not all robots however, we don’t go in every day being capable of all those good deeds. Some days we need a bottom line of what we should strive for to just get through that day. That bottom line is equal to the point where you atleast don’t do any damage to the relationships and projects that you are part of. Wheaton’s Law offers a very simple, clear-cut bottom line for those:

Don’t be a dick

It’s very simple, you just make sure you are not unfriendly, you make sure no one leaves your presence saying “What a dick…”. The point here is just to not offend people and let them keep their game up and positive. Now, that would be the second reason why Wheaton’s Law should be implemented on your work floor. It has everything to do with games and their likeness to our interactions. So first let’s talk nerdy for a bit in the next session. I have to add that this is a continuous discovery for myself.

I noticed I didn’t say anything about hockey yet. Only about the team I used to follow, the Kemphanen, who don’t seem to do to well. I would like to tell you a bit about why I love hockey so much.

I find it hard to explain why I have wanted to play NHL 2014 on the Xbox pretty much every night, atleast for an hour. I love the feeling of being in the middle of everything there with a character that looks a bit like myself, scoring goals against goalies like Halak and Varlamov, picking a fight with Alex Ovechkin or tripping Sidney Crosby. There’s a charm to it, which you cant deny.

Source: Wikipedia

Apart from all the fun and comradery, hockey is also the last bastion of an almost Gladiator like sense of morality, bravery and dedication. You never see a football player come back on the field with stitches on his face, he just stays injured. A hockey player doesn’t dive, they go on, even when in pain. They train to be physically at their peek and have a team spirit that truly deserves to be called a band of brothers.

The picture you see above is the famous flying goal by Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. A goal that won the team the Stanley Cup (meaning the most important price for a hockey team). It shows true daring and dedication, the will to give it all and go for that impossible goal. It shows what you can learn from Hockey: give it your all, your best and forget that you also have to land. Score like Bobby Orr.

The first Sounds of the Underground of 2015 and the section of my blog seems to gather some attention. Thank you for this. For this edition I checked out The Glitch Mob, Cruachan, The Hyle and Chthonic.

The Glitch Mob – Love Death Immortality

Source: gemm.com

So it would appear I like a lot of metal and truly, it is the main thing I listen to these days. I have a huge weakness however for the Glitch Mob. I like electronic music that is heavy on the bass, layered and telling a story in itself. The debut of this group from 2010 was quite amazing and captivating. It had that same mystery I find in postrock and some black metal. On their 2014 release the band takes a different approach.

The feel of the sound is much more dance-oriëntated, high on energy and with a faster pace. Fleet footed and lightweight would also be terms, but they might feel a bit negative. Songs like ‘Skytoucher’ still captivate the feeling I loved so much on their debut, but in general the album is more directed at selling and being something the kids can dance to. Not sure if that’s a good thing, for me ‘Drink The Sea’ will remain the favorite and I’ll check in with these guys again when a new record comes around. Though their ‘glitch’ may be less attractive to me, the group still makes brilliant music. Don’t take me wrong on that.

Chthonic – Bù-Tik (武德)

Source: Metal Archives

Since the album that is released on 29 december is a full acoustic one, I thought it fun to look back at the previous release of Taiwanese melodic death metal giants Chthonic. The band plays with folk elements and structures in a complex sort of work, that relates closely to the atmosphere of black metal in my opinion. The hectic sound is typical in most Asian metal bands I’ve heard, also the clean sound and the polished production. The band manages an accesible sound, while retaining their identity.

The narrative is that of the foundation of what became Taiwan, told in the native tongue. That shouldn’t prevent you from listening to it. The beauty of this record is it’s way of sounding like a metal band in a clear cut manner, but implementing the narrative of Taiwan by using folk elements and mythology to create distinctness. Anyone hearing this will look up in surprise to check what it is they’re listening to, but still feel it relates to them. Though the sound is rooted in the more extreme styles, the grandeur of power metal is definitely present int he riffing and huge arches of vocals and synths. It doesn’t surprise me that Spinefarm signed them. The acoustic album that is coming out is promising to be another revelation and a rare insight for many metalheads in Asian traditional music.

The Hyle – Demo

Source: bandcamp The Hyle

The Danish band has a wonderful sound that combines doom with a stadium rock-like swagger, without losing any of their credibility. This demo was not without reason so well liked by Cvlt Nation out of what they picked up this year. The slow, foreboding sound of ‘Lucifero’ sounds weary and whispers a certain despair. The clean vocals are warm and caring, but hollow somehow. Slowly the song runs its course, untill twangy bass sounds support samples and harrowing riffs continue the brooding sound onto the ritualistic sounding ‘Serpent King’. I feel a bit reminded of Electric Wizard meeting up with Witchcraft when listening to this record.

The second half of the record opens very slowly with ´Spiritual Sacrifice´. The spun-out track wavers on for a couple of minutes, when silence descends. The final song is ‘Children Of The Divine’, which is also a dark tune with the sense of ritual and pagan magic to it. The band creates a sound that feels like retro, but also distinctly now. The record is captivating and if these Danes call this a demo, I’m eager to hear the debut.

Cruachan – Blood For The Blood God

Source: Metal Archivers

The Irish folk metal band Cruachan is pretty much one of the first of its kind. This year I saw them play live, finally, at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting and experienced a lot of their new songs. The work seems raw, honest and direct, but also a bit amateuristic sometimes and a little odd. The vocals of Keith Fay are very peculiar and the man is simply not the most talented singer. Still, the blend of folkish traditionals and raging metal works quite well for the group that has released it’s seventh album on Trolzorn records. The song ‘Born For War’ is representative for the epic sound and feeling this band wants to invoke.

Noteworthy is the song about ‘Beren And Luthien’, which departs from the Irish mythology and picks up a little Tolkien along the way. The band seems to have two gears, of which one is a slow, melancholic pace and the other the frantic one-two-one-two primitive death metal roll. Both are implemented in different ways, but it tells the listener a bit about this band. Cruachan feels like a band on form, enjoying what they do once more, but also stuck in thier own sound. Change is a difficult thing and this record doesn’t sound in any of it. One could argue that this is the reason the whole folk metal movement passed the Irish group by. I don’t know, perhaps they are comfortable in their own little niche. Songs like ‘Gae Bolga’ and ‘The Arrival of the Fir Bolg’ are both well constructed and atmospheric and display the strenght of Cruachan. I worry that they will remain an anachronism in a genre that moved far beyond the primitive sound of this group.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.

– Jonathan Swift

Another day that shocks the world. The assault in France on the Charlie Hebdo office was all over the news today and understandably. Another attack in the heart of Europe. The comparisons with Utoya where soon made ofcourse. After having just read the book of Asne Seierstad on Breivik, the events hit me hard.

In fact, I just received an e-mail from Asne Seierstad, who I wrote to thank her for the book, when I picked up the news on TV. Men shooting and shouting things in what seems Arabic? Hard to say, I don’t know these languages very well. The acts are like a shard of ice in the heart though.

A police officer is gunned down with what seem to be assault rifles. He is on the ground, writhing in pain. When one of the shooters approaches him in a rapid stride, he shouts something to the man and holds up his hand in a gesture of futile defence. Without even slowing down the gun is raised on the run and the officer is shot in his head. Another dead to avange the prophet Muhammed, who was mocked in a cartoon by the Charlie Hebdo magazine.

Source: Daily Mail (see for source) ‘Editor Charb holding up the last edition’

The magazine had actually been assaulted before, which only made the resolve stronger of the editors to say what they felt they should say in the voice of satire. Excersising one of the basic rights that we value so dearly in the western world. Sure, they went pretty far and we know that the muslim community (pardon the generalization) is not too understanding of what satire actually is. Still, you don’t see this coming. Or did we? It clearly hurts, regarding the massive respons to the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie.

The officer was shot in the head for a drawing, for a funny drawing of the prophet of Islam. So where 11 other people, amont them editor Charb and other well known writers for the magazine. Why? To avenge their God, apparently. “We have avenged our prophet!”. Now, I’m familiar with the bible and I’m told the Quoran has similarities. If there is a God, which I’ll gladly leave to everyone to decide for themselves (this is also a right), then God is in the view of these religions an omnipotent God.

If God is omnipotent, then I think he can avenge himself pretty easily on this puny human cartoonist. If God is omnipotent and vengeful, he knows what to do about it. This is after all the God that drowned everyone, so he knows how to do some ‘avenging’. God does not need anyone to do his avenging for him, which is the actual core message to take from all those holy books. You know what God can’t do? Make you love another, feel pity for another and make you forgive. That is the only thing he (again, hypothetically) can’t do for you.

Source: Circulation twitter/MSNBC

I find myself thinking that the sword needs to be fought with the sword sometimes. It’s hard to see any good in this world as it is. I feel so sorry for the people left behind after these murders, so sorry for the families and children, friends and all around them who now face these holes. I also pity the gunmen, whose hearts are filled with hate. A hate I doubt they understand.

I hope in time they’ll find forgivenes, that we find forgivenes, because hate only feeds hate. That we find enough compassion to grant everyone the freedom to speak, believe and do what they will.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. – Voltaire (attributed)

I’ve been trying out this new piece of social media, named Dropon, and I’d like to discuss my findings here in a brief way. If you like to follow me on Dropon, go ahead.

source: Dropon

Dropon’s USP: Privacy

The big advantage of DropOn is one you don’t see as an end user, but has everything to do with why people hate facebook: Privacy. Dropon claims to encrypt, protect, NOT share and give you total control of your privacy (read it here).

So what does Dropon do?

Basically twitter with more words

Source: Dropon – The menu sidebar

The thing is that Dropon actually works a lot like twitter. You follow people, people follow you. You have a timeline and use ‘drops’ instead of ‘hashtags’.

What it has in favor of twitter is a very spread out, calm look. Twitter is not a calm medium to look at, it’s high traffic is rather overwhelming in fact. Here you see the sidebar that Dropon offers. It looks cool and calm and you know all of these things already. Dropon in that sense is not aimed at a target group that has not been on social media yet, it’s the same old stuff really.

It works a bit like … well, Twitter and Facebook

The way it works is pretty similar to the media you know, just the names are different. You can do something with the way the font appears, which is cool and lacking in the traditional channels. s.

Source: Dropon – the post

The most interesting thing is the settings Dropon offers. Your profile is not something you can manage and customise that much, but it offers an open field option, which is cool. The thing Dropon does best is offer a very clean and clear menu structure, specially when it comes to privacy. Something different, compared to the dense, complex and hidden settings of facebook. Compliments for that. It also looks like it will work very well on a tablet or smartphone, but an app is not yet available.

Hello? … is there anybody out there?

The biggest downside of Dropon at this moment is that it copies twitter when it comes to finding followers and people to follow. Sure, you can easily look for ‘drops’ to follow (like ‘Marketing’ or soon I would imagine ‘Sexybabes’), but finding people you know is quite hard. Hence the call from users on twitter for followers. Dropon offers no way to look for contacts, something that even Linkedin offers (and twitter). It also lacks the option for groups that facebook has.

Conclusion

If you are one of the people that has big issues with privacy of other social media (and rightly so!), then Dropon might be a place for you. Currently it seems to be a bit of a ghost town and questions have been raised on how the makers plan to make some money out of it. I expect very little of Dropon and due to its redundant functions, it appears to be the next social media ghost town.

I have been ill for more than a month. I have not been to the gym, didn’t follow my diet and probably gained some weight. I’m not much for the idealistic new years resolutions, but I’ve decided that I need to restart my routine and go a bit further in following up my own goals. So here goes, my new years resolution. Believe me when I say this is the firs time I actually decide to have those.

1. Clean Eating 2.0

I started eating paleo in januari 2013. One day I just started doing it and I decided that this was something I could believe in and follow up. I’ve written about this before, but here is the Nerd Fitness guide that inspired me to pick up this diet. What it essentially means is that I stop eating everything that is delivered to my door, that is pre-made and what contains potatoes, grains and legumes. Also you need to avoid anything that is high in sugars, which you don’t need. Well, sugar in itself is something to avoid. This doesn’t mean you can’t have good food though. Also, I used to have one cheat day a week, that will be reduced to ‘one meal’. That will be pretty hard, butI’ve noticed that complete avoidance is pretty much impossible + when you suddenly can’t avoid it your body respons very badly to it. So having a minimal intake gives the body the right kinda shock.

Yes, I’ve read all the ‘debunking the paleo diet’ things too, and I think its sad. Obviously a diet alone is not enough, paleo alone does not make you a model, nor will it work for everyone. It does for me though, I have less stomach issues and drowsy headaches. Always keep your values in check though and don’t hesitate to drop some vitamines.

2. Gym 2.0

Source: Pinterest (Source unknown)

I’ve been going to the gym for years, but only last year I started noticing change. I felt much better, fitter and healthier due to my more intense schedules and determination in the activity. Due to illness and exhaustion, I did not do that much in the past month and I feel it in every fibre of my body. My goal is to increase muscle tissue this year and be able to lift, press, deadlift and squat certain weights. It’s all around 50.. I don’t need to get bulky, I just want to be strong and fit and that seems like a great goal for 2015.

Today I went to the gym for the first time in a long while again and it felt great. I feel motivated and just good about having gone there.

3. Synergy in the Relationship

Source: Bored Panda.com

I hope to reach a new level in the way my relationship works. We work well together, but I want to achieve what I considere synergie. Work together and support eachother on our life goals and understand and feel what matters to eachother. No matter how you translate synergie, it requires commitment that I am willing to put into it. I hope to find ways to improve it even further this year.

I’ve learned in the past year that relationships usually give you back what you put in to them. If you want to work on it, go for it and do your best first, rewards will come laterin the form of returned favours. If you don’t want to make the effort, neither will your partner.

4. Travel

Source: Essential Travel

I love travelling and seeing new places and this year I hope to add some countries to my list. One is already planned, which is a visit to Greece. If summer holidays fall through for some reason, then I hope to visit Malta too. In that case I also hope to make plans for the future and see some other locations . The Balkan is currently a destination that is much favored,but so is Iceland, Norway (Scandinavia) and Portugal. I’m a firm believer that travel is something that improves you and allows you to grow as a person. If not that, then travelling with only your minimum stuff takes away so much of the normal stress, its amazing. Travel is difficult sometimes, but doing it always feels super rewarding.

5. Write more and try some more beers

Source: puretravel.com

As you might know, I’m quite excited about my blog, but I have been struggling to find a routine to it and a way to write that speaks to everyone. I hope to write more and better stuff this year and make you keep on coming back. Thanks for checking it out anyways.

I also hope to keep on keeping track of the beers I’ve tried on Untapped and never drink the same beer twice. That’s a serious commitment, since I hope to find more remarkable tastes. Yes, it is not quite in line with my previous resolutions. Still, one needs to relax now and then, so why not combine that with discovery?

If you want to help me, that’d be most welcome. How? Simply let me know where you are going and if you want to take something home for me. I’ll just pay you back.

So there goes, my resolutions. They’re more targets I guess, goals and things I want to do and focus on. I also want to read much more books. Let’s make this a good year with lots of progress! What will you try to achieve this year?